Adapting the twelve principles of classic animation to lectures

This paper borrows from the fields of classic animation and 3D animation and adapts the fundamental principles of these subjects to a lecturing context. An analogy is drawn between an animator and a lecturer due to their shared objective: to communicate in an engaging way. If the fundamental principles of animation are read under the point of view of how they communicate a message, it is not difficult to see that they summarize some of the key concepts in the fields of education and educational psychology. Once adapted the principles can be used as a guideline by novice and experienced lecturers to increase students’ engagement both in traditional lectures and in e-learning environments. The principles have been applied successfully in teaching the Programming for 3D module and a number of modules at University of Sussex obtaining good feedback from students.